Tom Gates: DogZombies Rule (For now...)

Tom Gates: DogZombies Rule (For now...) by Liz Pichon
 
Tom has an excellent four-part plan for making DogZombies the best band in the whole wide world: write more songs, make a spectacular music video, somehow get enough sleep and continue annoying his sister Delia whenever an opportunity appears. The plan sounds manageable. Tom’s plans usually do.
 
At the same time, Tom agrees to look after a pet for his friend Mark while Mark’s family moves house. He is relieved to meet Marble the hamster rather than one of the more alarming animals he had imagined, but Marble’s enthusiasm for running on a squeaky wheel all night soon turns pet-sitting into a very noisy lesson in responsibility.
 
Band rehearsals, school mishaps, family interruptions, an unpredictable homemade video and an increasingly tired Tom unfold through Liz Pichon’s familiar mixture of first-person diary writing, black-and-white doodles, comic-strip moments, lists, calligrams and dramatically changing lettering. The visual jokes are part of the storytelling, making this substantial 256-page novel lively to navigate in short or longer reading sessions.
 
Warm, inventive and full of everyday chaos, DogZombies Rule (For now...) is especially well suited to readers who enjoy music, drawing, pets, funny family life and ambitious plans that refuse to proceed neatly. Beneath the comedy, it offers an observant story about teamwork, caring for an animal, coping with tiredness and keeping a creative project moving when real life interrupts.